Life of the Independent
by sukzee
Summary: What if Harry had left the Dursleys to live on his own when he was 9 yrs old and wouldn't let Dumbledore control or manipulate him. Powerful, slightly dark and intelligent Harry.
1. Life in the Dursley Household

**HARRY POTTER – Life of Independency**

**DISCLAIMER: UNFORTUNATELY THE BOOK OR CHARACTERS DO NOT BELONG TO ME.**

**_CHAPTER ONE_**

_LIFE IN THE DURSLEY HOUSEHOLD_

"Hey boy! Get up!" the knocking and banging on the cupboard aka his bedroom kept up until Harry Potter got up and pushed open the door.

"What kept you so long boy...breakfast isn't on the table and you are still sleeping" his uncle bellowed, spit flying haphazardly.

This is usually how his day began with his uncle yelling at him and being so used to it, Harry had learnt to just brush it off but today was a bit worse as he hasn't been feeling too well which was why he had mistakenly slept in. Usually he is up at dawn to clean the house and make breakfast for his aunt, uncle and cousin, not that it helped avoid his uncle's and aunt's yelling. He dragged himself to the kitchen and made breakfast for his "family" and after they ate and left the dishes to be sorted out by him, he found little scraps of food at the bottom of the pot and ate, before dragging himself up to finish up his chores.

When he felt like he was going to faint as he was too weak to be doing anything he snuck into the first-aid kit and took some pain relieve pills, luckily his "family" had left him at home to visit the museum as it was his cousin Dudley's birthday and won't be home until late at night which was fine by Harry.

This has been Harry's life for as long as he could remember because according to his aunt, his parents died in car crash when he was just one year old and he had been according to her "saddled" with them ever since because they were the only relatives he had left. At the age of nine, he had never known a mother or father's love as he had always been maltreated by the Dursleys, he barely got to eat three square meals a day and slept in the dark cupboard under the stairs. At school he had no friends because anyone that associated with him ended up being beaten by Dudley and his gang of followers, which by the way Harry was used to as he has always been his cousin's punching bag for as long as he could remember and because he was so malnourished he was quite small and fast for his age which made it a lot easier for him to escape Dudley's beatings these days.

As he went to bed that night, he prayed as usual to himself that someone or something would come and rescue him from this suffering. And as usual as he slept, he dreamt of green flashing light, and flying motorbikes.

Little did Harry know that his prayers were about to be answered.

AUTHORS NOTE: Sorry this was a bit short, you know being the introductory chapter and all I couldn't make it too long but not to worry the next chapter is longer. Please review...I love feedbacks and if there are anything you guys think should be improved, don't hesitate to tell me about them :) Thanks for reading.


	2. Acts Of Disappearing

**_DISCLAIMER: CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY DO NOT BELONG TO ME._**

**_CHAPTER TWO_**

_ACTS OF DISAPPEARING_

Two days later...

Harry was feeling really happy for the first time in so long as his "family" had just left the house to go on a month long vacation and that meant he was going to be home alone for the duration of that time, he didn't let the fact that they left little food or money to dampen his already high spirits or the fact that before the Dursleys left, his uncle had taken him aside and warned him not to do any funny business in the house.

"I promise I'm not going to do anything" he had replied honestly, not that his uncle had believed him.

The "funny business" his uncle had referred to, was the strange things that happened to Harry and as much as he kept telling anyone that cared to listen that he didn't know how any of these things came to happen, they didn't believe him. Like the time, Aunt Petunia had gotten fed up of Harry coming back from the barbers' looking like he hadn't even been at all, had taken a pair of garden scissors and chopped off almost all of his hair to the point that he was almost bald leaving on his bangs to conceal his lightning bold shaped scar on his forehead. Harry had gone to bed that night feeling sorry for himself and dreading going to school the next day, where he was already being made fun of because of his baggy Dudley's hand-me-down clothes and his taped up glasses. The next morning he had woken up with a head full of hair looking exactly the way it had been before his aunt had chopped it off the day before. He had been sent off to his cupboard for a week and as hard as he tried to explain that he didn't know how his hair had grown back, they hadn't listened to him.

Also like the time, he got into trouble for turning the teacher's wig blue. Or when the school had sent home an angry letter for climbing up the kitchen's roof, which even Harry couldn't understand how that had happened, one minute he had been trying to get away from Dudley and his gang by trying to jump onto the rather big trash cans in front of the school kitchen and next thing, much to the surprise of Harry and his bullies, he had found himself sitting on the roof's chimney. Although he reckoned that the wind must have caught him mid-jump. He had been sentenced to his cupboard for a week with no food.

With the Dursleys not home for a whole month! Harry could actually do things he loved to do for once like going to play in the park and he wouldn't have to sneak into the sitting room at night when everyone else is asleep to watch the television or sneak into the kitchen to find scraps of food to eat or sneak into Dudley's room when he's not around to play on his video games. It also meant he wouldn't have to sneak off to the library anymore which he had been doing since he had learnt to read at the age of three.

The truth is that Harry loved to read just about anything and is secretly a really smart intelligent child, a fact that he had had to hide from his aunt and uncle by bringing home average result report card from school, otherwise he would have been punished severely if he hadn't done, a lesson he had had to learn the hard way a few years back when he had started primary school and came home with an excellent and glowing report card compared to Dudley's abysmal and rather dreadful report card. Harry had been punished severely for trying to "outshine" and embarrass his cousin, by not being given food for three days, a lesson he had never forgotten since that day.

On his way back from the library, munching on the cookies the librarian Miss Emma had given him, which she usually did every time he visited the library as she thought he was too skinny, he heard Dudley's followers calling and running towards him which they usually did every time they saw him as it was a game Dudley had come up with to torment him further and he knew that if they caught him, he was going to get beaten up again. As he took to his heels, trying to get away from the bullies, he thought to himself "I sure wish I was in my cupboard right now, safe from these guys". Lo and behold! He found himself in his cupboard, he was so shocked that all he could do was stare numbly at his door.

"How on earth did I get here?" he thought to himself. He looked around trying to make sure he wasn't just dreaming, even pinched himself and from the pain, he was quite sure he wasn't. He thought back to what had happened and how he had ended up in his cupboard, he had wished he was in cupboard and he had gotten there.

An idea began to take form in his mind, what if he could do it again, after all he had done so before just by thinking about where he wanted to be and had ended up there. So he decided to start easy by thinking of himself in the kitchen, amazingly, he found himself in the kitchen. Excitedly he began to try other places, like the top of the stairs, Dudley's bedroom and even outside of the house, however he stopped when he began to get hungry.

As he went back in to the house to get something to eat, he decided to fire up the computer and look up what he had just done. At least now he knew that what he had doing was teleporting, he would have continued to read on teleportation except his stomach began to growl so he decided to continue later after eating.


	3. The Letters

**_DISCLAIMER: AGAIN I DO NOT OWN THE CHARACTERS *UNFORTUNATELY*_**

**_CHAPTER THREE_**

_THE LETTERS_

Harry began to adjust to living alone in the house, he had been home alone for almost a week and all he did was do his chores, eat, go to the library to study which he is proud to acknowledge that he was now reading on university level and when he got back home in the evening, he ate and then practiced his teleportation skills. He was now able to teleport to longer distances like the library and the park.

Meanwhile, somewhere in another world yet unknown to Harry, the Department Of Magical Law Enforcement situated in the Ministry of Magic, the use of underage magic indicator continually listed the Dursley's address indicating use of underage magic. Madam Amelia Bones, the head of the department had been notified and according to the indicator, the use of magic was coming from a nine year old child constantly not only breaking the rule of underage magic but also the one of unlicensed and underage apparition which could be dangerous if not done properly. She was more concerned about the child apparating than the use of magic, after all children at this young age are just starting to discover their magic abilities. She decided that she was going to have to send someone to the child's house the next day to warn his parents against what their child is doing and after that she gave it no further thought after instructing a staff to do so the next day. However she failed to notice or acknowledge that it should have been impossible for a child, let alone a nine years old one at that to have the ability to apparate as it is quite difficult and dangerous if not supervised to learn.

* * *

Back at the Dursleys' house, Harry had just gone up to the attic to look for old pictures or letters of his Aunt Petunia that could give him an idea of how his mother had looked like while she had been alive, because after all Aunt Petunia is his mum's sister. He figured that this might be the only chance he would get to do something like this, might as well take advantage of it.

Just as he was rummaging through some of the boxes, he found a little abandoned, mouldy box marked "don't open" which he would have just ignored but being a child he was curious to know what was in it, so he carefully opened the box and out spilled pictures of a little baby no more than a year old being carried by a man with black messy hair like his and glasses and next to him was a woman with vivid red hair and green eyes just like his and as Harry looked closer, he realised that those were his parents and the baby was him.

There were lots of pictures in the box of his parents and him as a baby looking happy, sorrow and pain like no other gripped Harry, and he thought to himself that if his parents had still been alive, this was how his life could have continued to be. He sat there for a long time crying for what could have been and as his tears subsided he spotted an envelope at the bottom of the box which he decided to open. This was what it said:

_**Dear Petunia, **_

_**I know it's been quite a while since we last spoke, I asked after you from mum and dad and they gave me your address which is why I could send you this letter. So how have you and your husband been? I just heard from our parents that you had a baby boy recently, congratulations! And hey I just had baby boy too, he's about three months old now and his name is Harry, I've included a couple of his pictures with this letter. I'd love to see pictures of your child too. I know you don't want to talk to me but I'm hoping that you could let go of the past, I mean me being a witch doesn't stop us from being sisters and I have never been anything but a good sister to you even after I got my letter to go Hogwarts and I know you wanted to get one too but unfortunately that didn't happen.**_

_**Anyway I hope you can let go of the past because I'd like us to get reacquainted and maybe one of these days my husband James and I could come visit you. I think you'd like James, he's really nice and he's a wizard too. It would mean a lot to me if you replied to this letter and maybe you could include pictures of your family too. I'd be waiting to hear from you.**_

_**Lots of love,**_

_**Lily Potter.**_

Harry couldn't believe what he was reading, his mum was a witch and his dad was a wizard. Whoa! He definitely did not see that coming. That would probably explain why he could teleport and why all those strange things happened to him. But his aunt never told him about his parents' magical abilities, actually she never told him anything about his parents, period. So his aunt had been jealous of his mother's abilities, which would explain why he always got severely punished whenever those strange phenomenon happened to him. Harry rummaged through the other boxes hoping to find more letters from his mother. Just as he was about to give up, he found another letter marked "don't open", so he opened it, hoping it was from his mum.

_**Dear Petunia,**_

_**I just wanted to tell you that I just got married, and although you didn't come to my wedding I know you were there with me in spirit. I miss you and I really don't know how else to get through to you, James, my husband says that when you are ready to accept my apologies that you will but I just wanted to say that I keep apologising although I'm not sure what I'm apologising for. It is not my fault that I'm a witch and you are not, it is who I am but that shouldn't stop us from being sisters, we are and we will always be.**_

_**Anyway I have left at the bottom of the page, the address to my house, you are welcome to visit anytime and I would love to come visit you too if that's alright with you and your husband.**_

_**Love,**_

_**Lily Potter.**_

"Aunt Petunia sure knows how to hold a grudge" Harry thought to himself and he quickly jotted down his parents address, packed up the letters and pictures and took them all out of the attic for safekeeping.

He was planning to pay his old house a visit the next day.


	4. Godric Hollow

**_DISCLAIMER: AGAIN LIKE I SAID BEFORE THE CHARACTERS UNFORTUNATELY DO NOT BELONG TO ME _**

**_CHAPTER FOUR_**

_GODRIC HOLLOW_

Harry had woken up bright and early to start his mission in finding the house that his parents had lived in before their death. He quickly went around the house completing his chores, ate his breakfast before fishing out the letter his mum had written to Aunt Petunia, which had the address of his parents' home. He packed a little bag with snacks for lunch just in case he came back late and as he had already decided that transporting to the house is the fastest way to get there, he closed his eyes and focused on the location, Godric Hollow, and with a soft pop he appeared at the doorstep of a cottage in the little village called Godric Hollow which was lined with quaint little cottages but his attention was focused on the cottage in front of him. Right in the front of the house was a sign that said "here stands the house of the Potters, in its ruined state as a monument to them and as a reminder of the violence that tore apart their family."

Harry gasped! His parents had been murdered, the sign says it all. So why had his Aunt told him they died in a car crash? Harry had so many questions, none of which he would be getting any answers to, until his aunt gets back from her vacation. He was about to enter the deserted house when he spotted a frail looking elderly woman in a strange looking robe in shocking bright pink, sitting in a rocking chair in front of a cottage across the street, feeding her cat. He walked up to her hoping she could tell him about what had happened to his family.

"Hi" he greeted her.

"Hello, my dear" she replied.

"I was just in the neighbourhood and I spotted that house, the one belonging to the Potters and I was wondering if you could tell me about what had happened to them" he asked, nervous and hoping she would tell him.

The woman peered at him with rather piercing brown eyes and said "If you can see that house, then you must be a fellow wizard because only witches and wizards can see the house."

"Why is that?" Harry asked, now growing even more curious and hoping she wouldn't get cross with him for asking too many questions, because back in the Dursleys' he would have been clipped around his ear for even daring to speak let alone ask a question.

However, the kind old woman merely smiled and replied "If you want to know more, you might want to come in because of the muggles, we wouldn't want them overhearing our discussion now, would we?"

With that she got up from her chair and walked into the house, with her cat at her heels. As Harry entered the house behind her, he still couldn't believe his luck in meeting a witch like his parents. He looked around the house, it looked quite normal until he spotted in the kitchen, a wooden spoon stirring whatever was cooking on its own and a broom was sweeping the floor on its own.

Harry would not have believed it if someone had told him what he was seeing, if he hadn't been looking at it himself. However he kept himself in check so as not to give himself away about his inexperience with magic, because he figured if the woman found out he didn't know about magic, she might not tell him about his family.

"Would you like some butterbeer dear?" the woman asked.

"Um, sure" he replied, guessing it some kind of drink in the wizarding world as he has never heard of such a drink until now.

As the woman settled down on a sofa in front of him, she began talking "so I'm guessing you must be from another country outside Europe if you don't know about the Potters, am I right?"

"Yes, I'm from America" he replied with an accent he hoped would pass for American, while wondering why everyone in Europe would to know about his family.

"Well, my dear, it's a rather tragic story really..."she started frowning slightly "I guess you can say it started with a dark and powerful wizard, who I'm sure you must have heard his name..." she paused, and when Harry shook his head in reply, she continued "well we don't say his name if we can help it but his name was Voldemort."

"Voldemort" Harry repeated in askance.

"Yes, he was a very bad wizard, as bad as a wizard could be..."she paused to drink some of her butterbeer "Anyway, this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started looking for followers. He got them too, some were afraid, some just wanted a bit of his power, because he was getting himself powerful. Dark days, my dear. No one could trust one another and didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches... terrible things happened. He was taking over. Of course, some stood up to him and he killed them. Horribly too. One of the only safe places left was Hogwarts."

At this point, Harry had to ask, "Um, what's Hogwarts?" this is the second time, he's heard that name, first time was when he had read his mum's letter to his aunt.

"Oh sorry dear, I forgot you're not from Britain, it's a school for witches and wizards, I reckon you are too young to go now, but at eleven years old, children with magical abilities receive a letter from the school asking them to join" she smiled at him "Anyway back to the story, I reckon Hogwarts was one of the safe places left because Dumbledore's, the headmaster was the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. He didn't dare try taking the school, not just then, anyway."

"Now, the Potters were as good a witch and wizard as I ever knew. Head boy and girl at Hogwarts in their day! I suppose the mystery is why You-Know-Who never tried to get them on his side before... probably knew they were too close to Dumbledore to want anything to do with the Dark Side."

"Maybe he thought he could persuade them... maybe he just wanted them out of the way. All anyone knows is he turned up in this village at their house, on Halloween eight years ago. Their baby Harry was just a year old. He went to their house and...and..." her voice shook and she took out a twig, waved it and out of nowhere, a little handkerchief fell to her lap which she used to blow her nose.

"Sorry, my dear, it's just so sad...I knew the Potters, they were one of the nicest people you could ever meet...anyway..."

"You-Know-Who killed them. But the real mystery is this, when he tried to kill their baby, Harry, he couldn't do it. Legend has it that after he tried to kill the baby and it didn't work, he left a mark on the baby's forehead shaped like a lightning bolt, I reckon to mark the child as a worthy opponent."

Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As the woman's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before... and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.

"So what happened to Voldemort" he asked, as he made up his mind to call his parents murderer by his name, why should he be scared of a killer especially one that tried killing him.

"That's a very good question. Same night he tried to kill Harry Potter was the same night he vanished. That's the biggest mystery, because he was getting more powerful...why'd he go?

"Some say he died. Bollocks, in my opinion. I don't know if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, biding his time but I don' believe it. People who were on his side came back to ours. Some of them came out of trances. Don't reckon they could've done if he was coming back.

"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on, because something about Harry Potter finished him. There was something going on that night he hadn't counted on...I don't know what it was, no one does, but something about that child stumped him, all right. Makes the child even more famous."

"So where is he now...Harry Potter I mean" asked Harry, curious to know if the wizarding world knew he was suffering where he was.

"People say he is now living with some muggle relatives, to protect him until he's ready to come back to our world which is complete bollocks..."she said as she shook her head in disapproval "A lot of people would have gladly taken in him, after all he saved our world but Dumbledore said he knew what he was doing, that it was for the child's protection."

This was a lot of information for a child of Harry's age to take in, but since he's not like most nine year olds, Harry got up, thanked the woman whom he later found out was called Madam Dinkles and left. Thank goodness, he had had a cap on, otherwise she would have spotted his scar right away. Now he knew a little bit more about his family, they had been brave and good people, and he is apparently a wizard!

So there was a reason Harry had been suffering all these years, because a man took laws into his own hands and decided he would be safer at a place he would rather die than be. He hadn't even met the man yet and he already hated this so called Dumbledore.

Harry suddenly found himself heading toward his parents house, and without hesitation opened the door and walked in. For a house that had been abandoned for ten years, it looked quite normal, he thought, until he got upstairs, and that's when Harry saw the real damage. For in a room that looked like a child's nursery, the door was broken in half, clothes were flung all over the floor as if someone had been trying to pack in a hurry and right in the middle of the room was a baby's crib with most of the parts broken all over the floor.

"This must have been my room and where Voldemort had tried to kill me" Harry thought to himself. He couldn't bear to be in the room any longer so he left and went to the next room, in there, was a big king sized bed in the middle of the room, all made up with deep red duvet covers and next to it was a bedside table with lots of framed pictures.

As he peered at them, most them seemed to be pictures of his mum and dad, while the others included pictures of a young James, a young Lily, pictures of James with three other men with the caption saying the Marauders, some pictures with James and one of the men from the Marauders with a caption underneath saying James (Prongs) and Sirius (Padfoot). Much to his surprise, the pictures seemed to be moving, pictures of his mum and dad waving, pictures of his dad and his friends trying to give each other high fives or in the case of the pictures with his dad and Sirius, playing pranks on each other. Harry felt like he could look at the pictures all day but when his stomach began to growl for food, he decided to go downstairs to the kitchen to eat, luckily he had brought along a bunch of snacks.

As he wolfed down his snacks, he began to think to himself that hey! Maybe he could come and live here and it is not like the Dursleys are going to miss him or stop him from leaving. As for school, he won't be missing anything, since he has already studied and passed primary school educational level, right now, he is at a university level of study and besides he wouldn't need to downplay his intelligence for anybody here and he could also educate himself on magic as he had come across a huge library during his tour of the house earlier. With his mind made up, Harry finished up his meal and began making plans of moving. He will start living at Godric Hollow although he's going to have to go back to Privet Drive to fetch his clothes and when the Dursleys gets back from their vacation, he's going to inform them that he is moving out.

It all works out, his life is starting to look up!

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Ministry of Magic, Madam Bones had just been informed by the ministry official sent to Privet Drive that there had been no one at the house when he had gotten there to inform them not to let their underage child apparate. The house had seemed deserted! They both came to the conclusion that the family was probably on vacation which meant that they couldn't do their job until the family returned. Due to the inconsistency and incompetence of the Ministry and its employees, they failed to notice the fact there had been a faint trace of magic around the house that morning and so after this encounter they gave no thoughts about it and completely forgot about the whole incident.


	5. The Change

_**AN: Sorry I haven't updated in a while, back to college and all so I've been quite busy. But I'm going to try to upload at least once a week and please guys review, without it I'm just going to think that maybe the story isn't quite that good. Thanks!**_

**_DISCLAIMER: AGAIN THE CHARACTERS EXCEPT MADAM DINKLES DON'T BELONG TO ME _**_ **  
**_

**_CHAPTER FIVE_**

_THE CHANGE_

Harry was having the time of his life at Godric Hollow, he's been spending a lot of time in the library, learning how to use magic, although he didn't yet have a twig like Madam Dinkles' which he finally learnt was called a wand, he however, discovered that he didn't need a wand to do a lot of magical things he's been learning, like how to levitate things. He discovered that he just had to focus on what he wanted to do and it happened, so far, he had learnt to levitate things, he had even learnt to control the objects to do whatever he wanted like when he had wanted to clean up the house, he had simply sat down and got the house cleaning itself up.

So far, he had also as a practice to develop his wandless skill, put up a lot of protective shields around the house such as the Anti-intruder Jinx, the Intruder charm, Defensive charm, Security spell and also the Shield Charm which was one of the easiest one he did including the Muffliato charm and also the Muggle Repelling charm which he figured would back up the disillusion charm already placed on the house to deceive muggles into thinking it was an abandoned and crumbling house. Although he was able to cast all those numerous spells, they had exhausted him physically and magically, and he had had to put off his magical studies practices for a few days so as to regain his strength and also strengthen his magical core. He figured he needed more practise so that he wouldn't be easily exhausted since he had just started using his powers and him doing all those complicated spells doesn't help much.

However he still needed to get a wand, because due to the complexity of some magic spell he would require a wand to cast them and from a book he had discovered in his mother's bedroom called Magical Places in Britain, he had learnt that there was a place called Diagon Alley a famous magical shopping centre, where he could literally buy anything magical. He planned to go there as soon as he could. He wasn't in a hurry to get a wand anyway, being wandless didn't hinder his use of magic

He had been at Godric Hollow for almost three weeks now, and the Dursleys were due back from their vacation today and so he was going to Privet Drive to inform them that he had moved out. Harry had already made up his mind that whether or not they stopped him from living in Godric Hollow, he was still going to live there anyway. He decided to apparate to the house right where they could see him just for the fun of seeing the expression on their faces, and he wasn't disappointed.

The Dursleys had just gotten back from their vacation and had found the house empty, they had searched everywhere for Harry to yell at him for leaving the house. After a few minutes of searching and discovering that nothing in the house had been stolen, they had resided to the sitting room to watch a movie, not in the least bothered that Harry was nowhere to be found. You could feel their shock when Harry appeared out of nowhere with a crack and as for Harry, the expression on their faces was priceless, they all had their mouths hanging open, a stick of lollipop hanging from Dudley's. If it hadn't been for the fact that he wanted to be in their good grace so that they would willingly let him leave without arguments, Harry would have burst out laughing because at this point he was really trying hard to stifle his laughter.

"Boy, what sort of magic trick is that...don't you ever do anything like that again" his uncle Vernon yelled, spit flying haphazardly from his mouth.

"Yes, the neighbours could have seen you...it is bad enough I'm related to you" his aunt was now shouting too "Don't ruin our reputation in this neighbourhood with your freakishness."

"I'm sorry" Harry said, trying to get them to calm down so that when he told them he was leaving they won't try to stop him, getting them angry probably isn't the way to go about trying to convince them of that.

"You freak! How did you do that anyway" his aunt hissed angrily.

Harry was starting to get really angry now, he had apologised and although he had known they wouldn't just accept his apology and move on, he knew he didn't deserve the insults which are usually what came next after he had been yelled at for getting in trouble and from now on he was done taking it lying low.

"I'm not a freak and don't you dare call me that, ever again!..." his eyes were blazing angrily and even the Dursleys cowered, for he looked dangerous and not his nine-years-old self "...and as for how I appeared right in from of you guys, that was magic" he finished with a smirk satisfied to see that his "family" looked scared, as the lights were flickering on and off on its own due to his anger.

"There is no such thing as magic" his uncle said angrily, raising his left fist to hit Harry.

Usually Harry would have cowered in fear, wouldn't be the first time his uncle had raised his fist against him, he had lost count of how many times he had been hit as punishment after getting into trouble for one petty thing or the other, but not anymore.

He straightened up, looked his uncle in the eye "Don't you dare lay a finger on me, unless..." he trailed off, still trying not to lose his temper.

"Don't you dare talk to your uncle like that, you ungrateful child" his aunt regained her composure after Harry's outburst at being called a freak. "Enough of this talk about magic...there is no such thing" she finished and to her surprise the young child burst out laughing.

"Oh please Aunt Petunia, you think you could keep me in the dark about my heritage forever?" the child said scornfully "well before you go on spouting your lies, let me spare you wasting your breathe now because I know that my parents were a witch and wizard, so you can stop all that lying." He had to give it to his aunt, she didn't try to deny it, however she did look shocked.

"How did you find out?" she hissed, the tension of boiling anger in the room was so intense between them that the two other occupants had been forgotten.

"Did you really think labelling a box "don't open" would stop anyone from wanting to open it..."

"You went through my letters?" his aunt yelled, interrupting him.

He smirked, boy, was he enjoying her reaction and as he was way past caring if they tried to stop him from staying at Godric Hollow, not that they would have much success trying, he decided to goad her more.

"Oh yes, I went through the letters my mum had written to you even the one about you wanting to be a witch too, so badly did you want it that you wrote to the headmaster begging him to send you your own letter"

"That is not true" she replied, with her cheeks flushed pink in embarrassment.

"That's why after you got rejected by the headmaster..." he went on, ignoring his aunt "you started being mean and stopped talking to her because you were jealous."

"I wasn't jealous, I was the only one who saw her for what she truly was...a freak!" his aunt angrily replied. "Then she went and married that Potter boy and if that wasn't bad enough, she got herself blown up and we got stuck with you and tried ridding you of being a freak..." she stared at him disdainfully "Obviously we hadn't succeeded."

"She died being brave...if you say one more nasty thing about my parents, trust me you are going to regret it because here's a news flash for you, I am not only a wizard...yes a wizard like my father, I have also learnt how to control my powers" he paused, really hoping she provoked him "So go on, I dare you"

The Dursleys were shocked as they had never seen Harry like this before, he seemed more matured, grown up and he had never talked back to them or let alone challenge them.

Dudley being stupid as usual, started laughing and said "You can't do anything, you're just a loser like your parents, and a fre..."he hadn't finished his sentence before he found himself hanging upside down mid-air. "Let me down, you freak!" he shouted, now feeling rather scared and at this point his mother was screaming and his father was threatening his cousin.

Few seconds later, Harry had pointed his finger at his uncle and non-verbally cast a Body-binding spell on him before turning back to his aunt who was by now cowering in a corner of the sitting room screaming in fear and begging him not to harm her.

He said coldly, "unlike you, I don't pick on the helpless and let this be a warning to you and your family, next time you call me or my parents names, I wouldn't go so easy on you..." he paused, taking a deep breath to calm down as he was still really angry that they hadn't even shown any remorse "...and in case you haven't noticed I am moving out and never coming back so you can tell whatever you want to the school because I wouldn't be going back there either" he finished and with that he turned on his heels and disapparated.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Hogwarts, the headmaster Dumbledore had just gotten back from a meeting with the school staff when his charm spell alarm that he had set up for the protection of the house where he had put Harry Potter to live with his aunt and family, went off and on checking it out, he found out that there had been a huge amount of magic being used there. He had known that they hadn't been the best muggles there was according to stories he had from Lily Potter but they had been the boy's only family and for his plan to come to fruition he needed the boy safe and protected.

He sent an owl to Kingsley Shacklebolt to meet him there, just in case Harry was in danger and with that he disapparated to Privet Drive, however, what he saw there wasn't what he had been expecting to see, because there in the middle of the sitting room was a really fat pink faced boy hanging upside down mid-air, and next to him was an equally fat man lying on the floor who appeared to have had a really powerful Body-bind curse placed on him.

He looked around searching for Harry, but all he saw was a skinny, trembling woman sitting at a corner of the room looking rather scared, fearing the worst for Harry's safety, he approached her.

"Hi, I'm Dumbledore" he said kindly to her.

"H-hi" she stammered fearfully.

"Would you mind telling me what had happened here" he asked

As she narrated everything that had happened, it appeared that regretfully that he had misjudged this set of muggles as it seemed that they had been mistreating Harry and even to the extent of leaving him home alone, for a month.

"Who does that to a nine-years-old child?" Dumbledore thought angrily to himself, and although he wouldn't normally encourage what Harry had done to them, he thought they deserved it. What perplexed him, was that although Harry was underage and would be able to perform underage magic, the spell he had casted on his family was rather a strong one for underage magic and he seemed to have control over his magic because if it had been weak, the spell should have worn off by now.

Dumbledore was still deep in thought when Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt apparated with a pop, and as he filled him in on what had transpired, Kingsley asked Harry's aunt the question that was on both their minds.

"So where is Harry now?" he asked.

"He moved out and said he was never coming back" she muttered.

"Do you have any idea where he could have gone?" Dumbledore asked and as she shook her head in denial, he began to worry and panic that not only had he lost the Boy-Who-Lived, if the wizarding world got wind of how Harry had been treated at his aunt's place, not only would their hatred for muggles increase but his reputation could also be ruined as he had placed Harry with his aunt against a lot of people's wishes that he remained in the wizarding world with one of the well known and connected wizard families.

"Oh, this is bad Dumbledore" said Shacklebolt, "he could be anywhere".


	6. Magical Studies

**_AN: Hey guys, sorry this chapter is a bit short, the next one is going to be longer. Thanks for reading and keep reviewing guys, I really love reading reviews._**

**_RebeliousOne: Thanks for the lovely reviews and suggestions and as for your questions on how you think Dumbledore manipulated Harry by taking advantage of Snape's attitude towards him, I think you are totally right about that and obviously like I said in the crappy summary that I put up with the story, no matter what happens to Harry, he is not going to let anybody especially Dumbledore manipulate him and besides he already hates the man without even meeting him yet.  
_**

**_serenityselena: I wish the Dursleys got what they deserved too but I think if they should get it from anyone, it should be Harry but he is slightly dark not evil so I don't think he would do anything to them and besides after leaving in Chapter five, like he said, he is never going to and doesn't want to see them._**

_**DISCLAIMER: UNFORTUNATELY THE CHARACTERS DO NOT BELONG TO ME**_

**_CHAPTER SIX_**

_MAGICAL STUDIES_

Two months later...

Since the past three months Harry had been living in Godric Hollow, he had learned much more than he had at school and his magical education has been going on quite well. He had found a potions lab behind the library through a secret doorway, he had been looking for a book on potion making as he had decided to study up on it even if he didn't have the items to practise with and had pulled out a rather peculiar looking book in the shade of deep red and just as he was about to put the book back as it was blank, he found a lever in the empty book space and had been pulled it, only for the cupboard to move, revealing a room filled with all sorts of items for making potions. You could imagine his joy in finding the lab, like a child that found a secret stash of candy and ever since his discovery, he had been spending all of his time in there, practising and making potions.

However he started with easy ones such as forgetfulness potion, cure for boils and after a while he had practiced every potion in the beginners book for potion brewing before moving on to the more advanced one and he had started learning to brew more advanced potions such as Draught Of Peace, Confusing Concoction and several others.

As he learned to make these potions, he was however starting to realise that most of the time he didn't usually get the desired results even when he followed the instructions as written in the potion books and that's when he began to make changes to a lot of them which as he went along, he began to get the right results such as when brewing draught of the living dead, which after changing a few instructions in the book, resulted to being thicker as it should be. As he created these potions, he labelled them and kept them in storage just in case he needed them.

While he was doing so well in his Potions, Runes, Arithmancy, Defence against the Dark Arts (which he thought was a weird name for a class) and Charms, he wasn't having much success with Transfiguration because of lack of wand. However he did learn a few wandless spells such as the Vanishing Spell which he had had to practise for quite a while because it required a wand and without a wand, it took a lot of concentration and usually drained him magically.

After a month and a half, he finally successful vanished a spoon, he had been practising on. He had let out a really loud "whoop" after his first successful attempt, luckily he had placed a very powerful Silencing Charm on the house. After that he learned to practise more on other larger items until he had perfected the skill, however, he had decided that although he needed to perfect his wandless magic skills, he would still need a wand.

This was his life in Godric Hollow, he studied, he watched the television when he wanted to take time off studying and a few days after he had started living there, he had run into a little safe built into the wall, hidden safely away behind his parent's bedside table and when he had tried opening it, a little inscription in gold had appeared on it saying "Only by the blood of a Potter can this be opened" and a little figerpad hole appeared right in the middle of the safe door.

With that Harry placed his thumb on it and felt a little prick, he pulled back his thumb and a little blood seeped out from where his blood had been taken but within a few seconds, the cut had disappeared, so had the inscription on the safe which was now opened. Boy, does he love magic!

He gasped when he looked into the safe, it was filled with both muggle and wizarding money. He had learnt about the wizarding money from Madam Dinkles, he learnt that the currencies consists of three different coins, Galleon, Sickle and Knut, gold, silver and bronze respectively. The safe was filled to the brim with mostly Galleon and some Sickle and the highest denomination of pound currency filled up the muggle side of it. Also in it, was a will for the Potter vault in Gringotts, which is a wizarding bank according to Madam Dinkles, stating that it should only be opened and read by a Gringotts goblin, he had already decided to go to Diagon Alley soon to find out about the will but his studying had taken up most of his time.

After his encounter with the Dursleys, he had taken some money out of the safe to buy some groceries for the house, as he was starting to run out of food, and because he didn't want to draw attention to himself at Godric Hollow, he had apparated to Privet Drive to buy the groceries and as he was walking to the store, he thought he spotted through the Dursleys' kitchen's window, an old thin tall man with long silver hair and beard but he didn't care anymore about them and as he said he was done with them. He came to buy some groceries and that's all, he bought his groceries and apparated back home.

Few days later, Harry decided to visit Diagon Alley, to get his wand and also to check out the Potters' vault and will.

* * *

Back at Hogwarts, Dumbledore was pacing around his office, trying to discern what had happened with Harry Potter and how he had gained control of his power at such a young age. From the position he had encountered the Dursleys, he had gathered that much about Harry's power control, and the spells used should be done with a wand.

"Where had he gotten a wand from? And who is teaching him to use magic because those hadn't been accidental magic done on the Dursleys." he wondered, and although he had members of the Order of Phoenix looking out for Harry, he just hoped where ever he is, he was safe and hadn't gotten into the hands of a dark wizard that might raise him to be equally dark, because if that's the case, his plans won't work as he had hoped.

"I need to find that boy and soon" he thought to himself.


	7. Diagon Alley

**_AN: As I promised this chapter is a wee bit longer, so please feel free to review._**

**_DISCLAIMER: AGAIN, HARRY POTTER DOES NOT BELONG TO ME _**

**_CHAPTER SEVEN_**

_DIAGON ALLEY_

Harry apparated into Diagon Alley the next day, but had decided to visit Gringotts first because he figured it would take longer. He had on a cap to conceal his scar, as he didn't want people to know about him being back in the magical world yet and he figured that if whoever this so called Dumbledore was and is as powerful as people say he is, he would have known that Harry had left the Dursleys and would be looking for him to return him back to them, which Harry wouldn't be giving him the satisfaction of doing.

He didn't need any help finding and getting to Gringotts contrary to what he had thought, because straight ahead was a rather imposing tall snow-white marble building and written in huge letters on the building were the words Gringotts Bank. As he walked up the white stairs, at the burnished bronzed door stood a goblin in a uniform of scarlet and gold, although Harry had read about the goblins being the guardians of Gringotts and had even studied Gobbledegook which is their language and culture, it was still quite fascinating to actually see one for real, they sure don't look like they do in fairytale storybooks that he read when he was younger, he thought to himself.

As he went through the bronze doors, he found that it led to another entrance hall and another set of silver doors flanked also by goblins. As he went through these doors, he found himself in a vast marble long hall with long counters on both sides of the hall and sitting behind these counters were goblins. As he nervously walked up to one of the goblins at the counters, who unsmilingly looked down at him, he spoke in gobbledegook.

"_**Hi Master Goblin, keepers of the wealth of the Wizarding world, I am Harry Potter and I have come here to take out some money from the Potter vault" **_he finished with a bow, as is the custom of the goblins to communicate with each other in this manner, not that most wizards know about this or care.

The goblin looked rather taken aback, as it was rare to see a wizard speaking their language or even polite to them especially a wizard as young as the one standing in front of him, responsible for his shock. He quickly masked his surprise, as goblins hated showing any sort of weakness in front of wizards.

"_**Ha, Harry Potter, the boy who lived, it is quite a surprise to see you here alone" **_he replied, also in gobbledegook.

"_**Well yes, also I would like the details of all the properties belonging to my family and if you need any prove that I am in fact a Potter, go ahead and give me any test to prove it"**_Harry said, rather unfazed by the fact that the goblin seemed suspicious, in fact he himself would have been quite suspicious if the goblin hadn't been, because the Potters' as Harry had read in a book in his parents' library about his family, were a old and powerful Ancient and Noble wizarding family and are held in high esteem in the wizarding world and the bank would do anything to provide their vault with maximum protection against frauds and intruders.

There was a hint of respect in the goblin's voice when he spoke up, **"Please follow me..." **and with that he came out from behind the tall counter and led Harry farther down the hall, and when they got to an abandoned and dark hallway, he stopped and stared at a wall, placed his palm on it and hey presto! A door appeared in its place and as they went into the room, the door disappeared and the wall had taken its place. In the middle of the room, there was a chair which the goblin led Harry to sit on and he had then walked to the corner of the room, his back turned to Harry, after a minute or so, he turned around and floating mid-air in front of him was a little glass bowl with gold and silver lined rim.

He came to a stop in front of Harry and from nowhere produced a sharp pointed needle with which after asking Harry to pull out his right hand, he proceeded to prick his index finger, letting the blood drop into the bowl, as soon as the blood hit it the bowl it disappeared and so did the spot on his finger where he had been pricked with the needle.

Harry looked up from the bowl to find the goblin smiling, well at least what he hoped was a smile.

"_**Well, according to the test you are Harry Potter, the heir of the Noble and most Ancient House of Potter"**_the goblin said.

"_**No offense but how did putting a drop of my blood in the bowl prove that?"**_Harryasked rather confused.

"_**This is one of the most powerful and strongest blood test used to prove someone's heritage and find out if someone is trying to impersonate. If you had been lying about you being Harry Potter or under the use of a polyjuice potion to impersonate someone, when your blood had gotten into the bowl, it would have overflowed with blood which would have revealed your true identity if under the juice and if you aren't lying, the bowl absorbs your blood as it is pure and true blood of the person taking the test as you have seen from what happened with yours"**__,_the goblin replied.

"_**Thank you for telling me about the process"**_Harry said with a bow, as it is with the goblin culture.

The goblin had decided on meeting the child that although he hated wizards, this child sitting in front of him was polite and rather considerate as he had not only learnt to speak gobbledegook but also the goblin culture and had totally earned his respect.

"_**You may call me Griphook, young master Potter"**_he told the boy with a bow too.

"_**If that's the case, you may call me Harry"**_ the child replied with a smile.

"_**Accompanied with the test is a result of all the vaults belonging to you as the heir to the house of Potter and also properties owned by your family which is now legally yours. Also as it was a blood test, it reveals all your magical abilities and gifts. Would you like to see that first or go to one of the vaults?"**_Griphook asked with a smile.

Harry more interested and curious as to what the result would say about his abilities than the money owned by his family decided that he would like to see the results first and this is the results as follows:

_**Harry James Potter, Son of Lily and James Potter**_

_**Heir Apparent of the Noble and most Ancient House of Potter**_

_**Heir Apparent of the Noble and most Ancient House of Black**_

**Possessions**

**Properties**

_Potter Manor – Scotland_

_Number 12, Grimmauld Place – London (pending)_

_Cottage – Godric Hollow_

_Black Manor – Wales (pending)_

_Beach House – Barbados_

_Castle – Ireland_

_Castle – Bedfordshire_

_Beach House – Brazil_

_Black Castle – Ireland (pending)_

**Possessions**

_Harry James Potter – Vault 687 (worth up to 2million galleons)_

_Lily Potter née Evans – Vault 145 (worth up to 6million galleons)_

_James Potter – Vault 638 (worth up to 10 million galleons)_

_Potter Family Vault – Vault 723 (150 million galleons and jewelleries and other items worth about a 50 million galleons) *highly secured*_

_Sirius Black – Vault 711 (pending)_

_Black Family Vault – Vault 720 (pending)_

**Abilities**

_Master Occlumency- natural._

_Master Legilimency._

_Potions Master._

_Wandless abilities – natural and advanced._

_Parseltongue._

_Parsel magic._

_Natural apparition and disapparition talents._

_Metamorphmagi._

Harry was speechless and stunned beyond words, if he really had all these abilities, then boy, does he have a lot of practicing and studying up on it to do. However he was quite confused about something which he couldn't help but voice out to Griphook.

"_**Griphook, who is the house of Black and why I'm I heir apparent to it"**_he asked, confusing written all over his young face.

"_**That would be your Godfather, Sirius Black's family and as he is the Lord Black, he appointed you to be his heir so that when he dies you will inherit all of his possessions"**_the goblin kindly explained.

Harry thought he remembered that name Sirius but where? He carefully searched his mind and as he had an eidetic memory, he was able to recall the photos he had found on the bedside table in his parents' room on his first day at Godric Hollow. He remembered a picture of his father with another young man, playing pranks on each other with a caption underneath saying "James (Prongs) and Sirius (Padfoot)". Wow! He had a godfather, an actual family.

Still a bit confused, he asked _**"What does the "pending" next to the possessions from my godfather mean?"**_

"_**It means that although you are to inherit all those items, however you can't do so yet as Lord Black is still alive, the pending sign will change when he dies"**_the goblin answered.

"_**Ok, thanks for the explanation, I would now like to see just my vault and the Potter family, and I would check the other two next time I come"**_Harry said thinking that the sooner he could finish what he came to Diagon alley for, the faster it would take him to get home and find out what had happened to Sirius Black, because as his godson, he should be living with him and not the Dursleys. He suspected that either there had been foul play involved or something else must have happened to have stopped him from living with his godfather.

"_**Very well, Harry"**__ the _goblin replied with a bow, before leading him out of the room.

* * *

Harry came out of Gringotts, an hour later after checking out his vault and family vault. He had been taken to his own vault first which Griphook opened using a small gold key, one he later handed to Harry, after the vault had been opened, Harry had let out a small surprised gasp as it was filled from top to bottom with Galleons, tons of it. Getting over his shock, he produced a little drawstring pouch with a flick of his wrist and proceeded to fill it with some money, he took as much as he thought would be enough to last him for maybe five months as he had no intention of coming to Diagon Alley anytime soon because he didn't want to give Dumbledore any opportunity to see him yet. Luckily, he had charmed the pouch to remain weightless and bottomless using the Undetectable Extension Charm, because when they had gone to his family's vault which was situated in the deeper underground part of Gringotts protected apparently by a dragon because as explained Griphook "_**it belongs to a very old, powerful and wealthy pure-blood family**_", he knew he had made a wise decision in doing so. As they got to the vault, Harry expecting Griphook to open it with another key was rather surprised when he merely placed his palm on the door and it opened. If Harry he had too much money in his own vault, boy, was he flabbergasted when they got into the Potter vault as it was a lot bigger, one could fit a whole house in it and still have a lot of space left! The vault was not only big but was also filled from top to bottom with gold, treasures and Galleons, there were golden coins, goblets, necklaces in diamonds, so many treasures. But the one thing that caught Harry's attention was the majestic bookshelf placed at the back of the vault filled to the brim with books.

"I think I have died and gone to heaven" the boy thought to himself as he started selecting a couple of books on potions, occlumency and legilimency, blood magic, dark arts, defence against dark arts, charms and a couple of some on the History of magic. By time he was done selecting, he put them all into his pouch and he returned back to the top of the bank with Griphook. As they got there, Harry asked to talk to the goblin in private and he led the child back to the room in which Harry had taken the blood test.

"_**Griphook, you say I'm the heir to the house and family of Potter, right?" **_Harry asked.

"_**Yes, that's true"**_ the goblin replied.

"_**I don't have a guardian and I would like to be emancipated, do you think I could get the right to be since basically I'm the next Lord Potter?" **_

"_**Actually Harry, forgive my mistake for not mentioning this earlier due to all the confusion of the blood test and all but you are not the next Lord Potter, you are the Lord Potter, when your father was alive, you were the next in line but since he isn't anymore, you have now taken over as Lord Potter"**_ the goblin said with a smile.

"_**If I am Lord Potter now, how come the blood test doesn't acknowledge this, it still says that I am the heir on it, doesn't that mean I have to do something else to be fully acknowledged as Lord Potter?"**_ the child asked, now very confused to say the least.

The goblin quite impressed that the child had figured all of these out, nodded, _**"Yes, although we don't get Lords as young as your age, as there is always someone acting as Head of the family until the heir comes of age, if the present Lord of a house dies and the heir is still young, however, as your situation is rather different, we could allow you to perform the usual procedure needed to fully come into your rightful position and as soon as you become Lord Potter, you are immediately emancipated, according to the laws of the Ministry and the blood test results would also acknowledge this automatically as well"**_

"_**How soon can I perform this procedure, can it be done today**_?" Harry asked, now getting excited.

"_**Of course"**_ the goblin replied.

"_**Alright, I would like it done today please"**_

The procedure was quite simple, first he had to take a blood test to prove that he is a Potter and is truly the rightful heir and as he had already done that before they skipped that part and moved on to the next part which is where a silver bowl was brought in and again Harry had his finger pricked to supply blood into the bowl which began to tremble and as it did, Griphook told Harry to repeat whatever was written in the bowl.

Rather confused by that, Harry looked into the trembling bowl and in red were the words:

_**I, Harry James Potter, Heir to the Noble and most Ancient House of Potter, solemnly swear with oath of the blood of the Potters running through my veins that I would uphold and honour the name of my family as my predecessors before me had done.**_

As soon as Harry had finished repeating the oath, the bowl stopped trembling and the words vanished and left in the bowl was a golden ring and engraved on the centre of the ring was the family crest which consisted of a silver sword and a wand lying across each other on a golden shield and flanking the shield on both sides were two fierce looking lions who seem to be in mid roar and inscribed around the crest are the words: _Bravery and Honour shall we live by._

"_**Take it, Harry and put it on the index finger of your right hand"**_ the goblin, instructed kindly, as he could tell that the young boy seemed a bit overwhelmed.

As Harry did as instructed, he could feel the ring merging with him as one, and could feel power like no other rushing through his blood. He felt powerful!

Grinning from ear to ear, he thanked the goblin and was just about to leave when he remembered that he still had the will he had found in his parents' safe at Godric Hollow, which was one of the reasons he had come to Gringotts and silently chastising himself he retrieved it from his jeans pocket and proceeded to hand it to the goblin.

"_**This is a will written by my parents which recently came to be in my possession and if it isn't too much trouble, I'd like to know what's in it" **_he said to the Goblin.

"_**Very well, since you're emancipated you can read it however if you hadn't been you would have had to wait until you came of age"**_ the goblin said before proceeding to open the piece of parchment by tapping a finger on the seal thrice, _**"Ha, there is nothing here that you don't already know"**_ he said before handing the parchment to Harry.

Harry took the parchment from the goblin and proceeded to read it but instead of letter on the parchment like the goblin had seen, a holographic image of his parents appeared instead. Shocked, he glanced at the goblin who merely smiled and said _**"It was written to you so you will see them, I can only read it because I'm a goblin and have the power to unseal the parchment, and no one else would be able to read or see the unless of course you let them. Even I can't read it now because you have seen it and haven't given me permission to be able to read it".**_

Nodding slightly, Harry turned his attention back to the parchment and listened to his parents. _"Hi Harry, if you are reading this, it means that unfortunately we aren't with you anymore but please know that we loved you very much and even though we are gone we still do..."_ at this point Harry couldn't stop the tears running down his cheeks in anguish, and as his parents went ahead to list all the possessions they had left to him, he felt that he would give up all of those possessions to have his parents back.

"_Harry, know that although we are gone, you still have people that love you as much as we do and your godfather, Sirius, would take good care of you..."_ Harry's father, James, was talking now, _"we trust him implicitly and Lupin too. I'm sure they are going to tell you all about the Marauder..."_ at this he chuckled before continuing _"Merlin's beard! We were a troublesome lot at Hogwarts," _he became serious,_ "This will was written when we found out that Peter Pettigrew, one of the marauders and our secret keeper had leaked our whereabouts to Voldemort and we know he's going to be coming for us soon...so son please take care of yourself and be careful. Harry don't cry over losing us, just remember that we are always with you in spirit. Always" _

Harry was so shocked that he didn't even notice when his parents concluded their speech, he was still fixated on the bit they said about being betrayed by one of their closest friends.

Deciding that he would think over what he had just found out when he got back to Godric Hollow, he looked up at the goblin and said _**"Griphook, thanks for all you have done for me today, I really appreciate it, however there is something else that I want you to do for me"**_

"_**What is it, Harry?"**_ the goblin replied, deciding that he would do anything for the boy, he had only spent a few hours with him and he was starting to really like him despite his hatred for wizards.

"_**It's not big really, just that I don't want people to know about me coming back to the wizarding world, because you see as of now, I'm pretty sure that I'm being searched for"**_ the child replied with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"_**As you wish, Harry, client's indiscretion is our top priority"**_ the goblin replied with a bow.

"_**Thanks Griphook and as I bid you adieu until next time, may your pockets continue to overflow with abundant gold"**_ Harry said with a bow before leaving.

* * *

He headed straight for Ollivanders Wand Shop as soon as he left Gringotts, to buy his wand, however before he entered the shop, he made sure his cap covered his scar securely, just in case Dumbledore came looking for him in Diagon Alley and asked the wandmaker about him. As he entered the dark shop, he felt some sort of magical energy attracting him to go to the back of the store but he ignored the pull and focused his attention on the old man with white unruly hair that had just emerged from the back of the shop.

"Hi, I'm here to buy a wand sir" Harry said.

The old man looked at him with piercing blue eyes, and said "Shouldn't you have someone accompanying you or are you alone?"

"I am alone, but I don't think that's a necessary requirement to buy a wand is it especially I don't need a guardian to accompany me" Harry replied, flashing his ring to the wandmaker, who got the message clearly.

"The child is emancipated and a Lord! Who is he?" the wandmaker thought to himself as he instructed the boy to hold out his wand arm, and when the child did, he took his measurements from shoulder to finger, wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and finally much to Harry's relief, around his head.

As the wandmaker was taking these measurements, he was saying "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand". Harry was quite fascinated by these little information, that it took him quite a while before he realised that tape measure was taking the measurements on its own. "That will do" said Mr Ollivander, who was flitting around his shop taking out various rectangular boxes and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor.

The wandmaker then proceeded to place a couple of boxes on the counter in front of Harry, and as he opened the first box, he picked out a wand from it and gave it to Harry.

"Go on, give it a wave" the wandmaker instructed.

As soon as Harry obliged, a couple of jars on a shelf behind the wandmaker exploded, which prompted the old man to quickly take the wand away from Harry. He gave Harry another wand which Harry, knowing the procedure now, gave a wave and this time all the boxes of wands on the counter fell to the ground, spilling out their contents. This went on for quite a while, until Harry becoming exasperated said to Ollivander "Sir, if you don't mind me asking is there a wand in the back of the store, that you didn't bring out for me to try"

"Yes, why do you ask and how did you know?" the wandmaker asked, rather taken aback.

"Would you mind bringing it out for me to try" Harry asked, ignoring the questions the man had asked.

"Of course" replied the wandmaker, before going to retrieve the wand, all the while wondering about the boy.

"How did he know about the wand...I had it safely hidden away until Harry Potter is brought back to the wizarding world" he thought to himself as he brought the wand out front to where the child was patiently waiting.

"Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple although I don't think this would work for you but give a wave just to try to..." the wandmaker gave the child to humour him but stopped mid-sentence as a gust of wind blew heavily into the room as the wand touched the child's hand. But what surprised him the most, is the amount of magical aura surrounding the child before it disappeared which signified the wand as the child's.

Meanwhile in Harry's case when the wand touched his hand he felt a warm feeling rush through his whole body causing him to smile as he immediately knew that this was the wand for him but he gave it a wave just the way the wandmaker asked him to and as he did, a stream of red and gold sparks shot out of the tip like fireworks.

"Curious...very curious" the old wandmaker said, still very gobsmacked as he put the wand back in its box and wrapped it in brown paper.

"What's curious sir?" the child said politely.

"Well the wand chooses its owner and it seems to have chosen you. I remember every wand that I ever made and sold and it so happens that the phoenix that gave your wand its feather, gave another feather, just another one. It's curious indeed because the other feather was in the wand of Voldemont, I'm sure you know who that is..." he paused shaking his head in wonder or confusion, Harry wasn't sure, "I would have expected this wand to work for Harry Potter because of the connection which was why I had kept it stored at the back of the shop but it seemed I was wrong." He fixed Harry with his pale stare.

"What did you say you name was?" he asked Harry.

"I didn't, but my name's Dudley" Harry answered smoothly wanting to process what he had just heard later.

The wandmaker stared at him a little longer before giving a nod maybe deciding to believe Harry. As Harry paid for the wand and wand holster he had been convinced to buy and was leaving, the wandmaker, who had been staring at Harry all the while, said "Dudley, would you terribly mind taking your cap off for just a second?"

Harry knowing the game was up, suddenly turned around and non-verbally threw a stunning spell at the old man knocking him out immediately, before the man could react, and with a flick of his finger he shut the shop and closed all the windows to prevent people from noticing anything. As soon as he was satisfied that no one could come in, he whipped out his new wand and took a deep breath.

"Time to put what I've learnt to practice" he thought aloud to himself. Pointing the tip of the wand to the wandmaker's head, he silently said "Obliviate" and wiped the events of him buying a wand and left the man with a vague knowledge of at least selling the holly and phoenix wand. Satisfied with what he had done, because now the man can't go around telling everyone that he was back, especially to Dumbledore. Before he left, he restored everything he had done to prevent people from noticing him stunning Ollivander, back to its place and as he left, nonverbally and wandlessly he countered the stunning spell with the Rennervate spell which should make the stunning spell wear off in a few minutes as he had made sure the spell wasn't powerful enough to knock the man out for hours.

So as not to be seen leaving the store, he also put a disillusionment charm on himself and on reaching the front of the Leaky Cauldron, he disapparated on the spot.

Quick note: the event with Ollivander is just a tidbit taste of what's to come of slightly Dark Harry because let's face it, no normal 9 year old or even maybe a teenager would have thought to react the way Harry did when he knew that he had been found out.


	8. The Wrong Criminal

___**AN**:____ **Hi guys, sorry I haven't updated in quite a while, just that I have been so busy at college and to top it all I'm working on three different projects for my classes. I had free time today after college and used that opportunity to write another chapter. I promise the next one wouldn't take quite as long *hopefully*. Thanks once again for your patience and please review.**_

**__****_DISCLAIMER: AGAIN THE CHARACTERS EXCEPT MADAM DINKLES DON'T BELONG TO ME _**

**_CHAPTER EIGHT_**

_THE WRONG CRIMINAL_

With a pop, Harry apparated to the door of the cottage, as he couldn't apparated into the house because of all the protection spells he had put up. As he let himself into the house, he went straight to the kitchen to get a drink and busied himself with tidying the already tidy house, just to divert his attention from thinking about what he had found out about his parents. However he couldn't avoid thinking about it when there was nothing else in the house for him to clean, he just couldn't believe that someone could betray his parents like that, especially someone who was supposed to be their close friend.

"Why the bloody hell did they not leave where they were when they found out and go into hiding or maybe they did...the only person that could maybe tell him more would be his godfather" Harry thought to himself

"But where the heck is his godfather anyway and why wasn't he placed under his care after his parent's demise, after all legally Sirius Black is his guardian".

So many of these thoughts were going through his mind all at once, making him confused, and when he couldn't stand it anymore, he got up deciding that to take his mind off of those dreary thoughts, he would go and visit Madam Dinkles whom he hadn't seen since the first day he had met her.

She was under the false impression that he occasionally came to visit a muggle relative who lived nearby and it has been about six months since he last visited her. Being almost Christmas time helps too, because in going to visit her, she would think he was back in England to spend the Christmas holiday with his relative since she still thought he was American and so lived in America.

Harry smiled as he knocked on her door, because as soon as the kind old woman opened the door, she wrapped him in a hug which made him a bit wistful as he wasn't used to this kind of display of affection or any kind of affection at all, and being hugged by the woman felt so warm and grandmotherly. When she finally let go him, she smiled and invited him.

"So how have you been, my dear boy...it's been a while?" she asked warmly, as she handed him a cup of butterbeer, which he gratefully took as he had discovered his love for the drink, but hadn't gotten around to buying some since he had had his first butterbeer.

"Yes, it has been a while...just been studying a lot, that's all" replied Harry and as they talked, he began to realise how much he had missed talking with someone, since he had been living alone, he hasn't had any contact with other people, less alone talk to them and have a normal conversation and his visit to Diagon Alley doesn't count, that had been strictly business.

They talked until around six in the evening, until Madam Dinkles asked if his parents wouldn't get worried if he came home late, and so as not to blow up his story about being in Godric Hollow with his parents, he got up and thanked her for spending time with him, and just as he was about to leave, an idea popped into his head and before he could stop himself, he turned around and asked "Can you tell me about Sirius Black".

"How did you know about Sirius Black?," the elderly woman asked, surprised "I didn't think you Americans knew about him"

"Oh...um, I read about how he was friends with the Potters somewhere" Harry replied, hoping desperately that she knew something about his godfather that would give him a clue about where he was.

"Oh ok...well you might want to sit down for this story" the woman kindly said, before taking a seat herself "Now about Sirius Black," she continued, "he was a close childhood friend of Harry Potter's father, James. However when the Potters knew that Voldemort was coming after them, they made Sirius their secret keeper but he betrayed them to the Dark Lord by willingly informing him of their hiding place. After the death of their friend, Peter Pettigrew one of the Potters' friends bravely went to confront Sirius, screamed at him for betraying his friends and before he could defend himself..." she paused shaking her head sadly "Sirius killed him and 12 other muggles by blowing up the street and all that was left of poor Peter was a finger."

During the woman's explanation, Harry had been glued to his seat, too numb with shock and surprise to even ask any questions. All that was going on through his mind at that point was that, his parents' supposedly best friend and his godfather had betrayed his family and basically ruined his chance at having a family. However before he could go further with those dark thoughts, it suddenly hit him. His parents' will! They had said Peter Pettigrew had betrayed them, not Sirius, which means that Peter must have found a way of framing Sirius for his crimes. This was a lot to process in a day, and he planned on thinking more about it later, however there was just one thing he needed to know before he left.

"Um, Madam Dinkles?" he said, barely a whisper.

"Yes, my dear?" the old woman replied kindly to the boy who looked a bit pale, which she construed to be as a result of the tale she had just told him. Most people had similar reaction of shock and surprise when they heard about Sirius Black, so she was at all surprised by the child's expression, she just hoped that she hadn't scared him too much, after all he was only a child.

"Where is Sirius Black now? Was he caught?" the child asked.

"Oh yes, he was and right now, he is in Azkaban, and has been since he had been caught" Madam Dinkles replied with a smile, hoping this might assuage the child's shock and what she ignorantly thought was fear in the child's eyes.

Meanwhile Harry was not thrilled by what he had just heard, he had to find a way to get his godfather out of Azkaban, even if he succeeded in doing so, he hoped to God, that Sirius would still be sane, because from what he had read about Azkaban, he wouldn't even wish his enemies or even the Dursleys' to be thrown in there.

"Well, Voldemort could be an exception to that rule, he did kill my parents" the child thought darkly.

* * *

That night as Harry laid wide awake on his bed, too restless to sleep, all he could think about was his innocent godfather trapped and suffering in that god-awful prison for a crime he did not commit.

"Poor Sirius" the child thought.

He thought about how this Peter Pettigrew had caused so many lives to be lost and in some cases ruined, not only did he lost his parents because of this same guy, but also his godfather. As he thought about this, he started to become really angry, so angry he became that he didn't notice the house had began to shake and everything in it. It was when he heard the dresser across fall with a heavy thud, did he then notice the effects of his emotions on the house and had to take a few breaths to calm himself down and gain control of his emotions.

Truth be told, he felt really helpless and at loss on what to do about the matter of his godfather, because in as much as he knew Sirius was innocent, how could he prove this to the rest of the wizarding world so that he could be released back into the society because right now Sirius was seen as a very dangerous man. It is basically his word against the world. For the first time since he moved to Godric Hollow, Harry felt like he was back at the Dursleys', helpless and alone. When he started to feel objects in the swirling haphazardly mid-air, he knew he was losing control of the tight leash he had on his emotion again, not knowing what to do and knowing that if he kept on thinking about his godfather and the inhumane place he is being kept in, he would lose control again and with that he closed his eyes and fell into an uneasy sleep where he kept dreaming of soul sucking demons, a faceless man screaming for help.

He woke the next morning with a start and when he touched his face he was surprised to feel tears streaming down his face, his dream had been too vivid and had felt so real. He dreamt that he was standing outside the gate of a prison cell, and inside the cell, on the floor, sat a gaunt looking faceless man, his clothes ragged and dirty. The man looked up and just as Harry was about to say something to him, a black shapeless with vivid red eyes appeared out of nowhere and grabbed hold the man around the neck, choking him until his eyes bulged. Harry tried to scream but found that no sound came out of his mouth, he tried to look away but his body wouldn't move, it was like he was paralysed. The demon then plunges his claw-like hand into the man's chest and pulls out his heart, at this point the man was screaming and crying out for help, his hands reaching and grasping the thin air. Harry tried again to scream but nothing came out of his mouth, he could feel the man's pain and agony, which was such that he too started crying. It was this he was dreaming of when he woke up. The dream had been all too vivid.

As he dragged himself up to a sitting position, he sighed deeply, for he knew that the man in the dream had been Sirius and he just knew that had to try to find a way to get his godfather out of prison, no matter what the consequences were. At this point, he didn't care if Dumbledore found him out, all he knew that he would find all means to get his godfather out of prison and reunited with him again. With this resolve, he got up to go take a bath.

* * *

Two days have gone by and Harry still hadn't come up with a way of freeing Sirius, he had taken to reading every book on the Ministry of Magic and their laws he could lay his hands on, but he couldn't find any loopholes that help Sirius. On the third day, he was becoming really frustrated with his lack of fruitful result and was starting to lose control on his emotion which always affected his control on his powers, the result being this time that he unwittingly set fire on the book that he had just finished reading. As he dashed to get some water to put on the book to extinguish the fire, he began to think about how he was beginning to lose control on his powers which wouldn't be off any help to Sirius should he try to take his case up with the Ministry. A child with unstable powers trying to defend and help free a convicted murderer, would not win any favours for Sirius.

With that thought at the back of his mind, he decided that while still trying to find a way of freeing his godfather, he would also continue his studies especially now that he had discovered his magical abilities through the blood test. He ran to fetch the books that he had retrieved from his family vault and proceeded to start reading and practicing them.

Within a month, he had discovered that he was rather good at advanced transfiguration and having his wand helps too and had improved drastically on wandless magic. He has also been trying parseltongue and parsel magic which wasn't difficult surprisingly, he hadn't even known that he was speaking parceltongue the first time he tried. He still worked on making potion and even dabbled in creating one himself which he called Spell shield potion. The purpose of the spell is that if the drinker is ever attacked, the spell would bounce off the drinker and reverse back to the spell caster. He had tried out the potion on himself after finally succeeding in making it which took about three disastrous attempts and had also used a dummy to attack him to able to deduce the effects of the potion, which he could now proudly say was perfect and successful. He had also been practising a lot on metamorphmagi, which he could proudly say he was rather good at, he knew this because he had practised morphing his scar into nothing on his forehead which had worked perfectly because after checking a mirror, there had been just skin where his scar used to be.

Then to try more complex ones, he had morph into a muggle one time and went about the streets of Godric Hollow, he even went into the park to play and successfully came back home compromising his true identity. However, the most important study he had been taking so far though, would be defence against dark arts, which hasn't been easy since there isn't enough room in the cottage to move around and he was thinking that as soon as he gets Sirius out of Azkaban, they would be moving to one of his castles, which he figured would have more room for his DADA practises. He had even been learning a few dark spells, which he figured could be useful in a fight as it would be unexpected of him to use them, but "Hey, whatever would be useful in defeating enemies should always remain top priority, be it dark or light spells and magic", Harry had thought to himself when studying the spells.

Most importantly he had learnt to gain control of his powers and even learnt to rein it in so that a really powerful wizard wouldn't be able to deduce how much power he got by looking at his aura, because he had read from a book that it was possible to do so and in a fight or duel that gives the person a bit more leverage. As he needed to be able to have control on his powers to be able to practise occlumency and leglimency, which he could now proudly say he was getting rather good at. He had tried leglimency on a few unsuspecting muggles whenever he went for a walk in his metamorphmagi disguise as a regular muggle and boy was it rather gratifying to find out that all he had practised actually worked.

He had even learnt to defend his mind and turn it on or off if he felt like doing so, which helped a lot when he starts to over think things.

However no matter how he tried to distract himself from his worries, bringing his godfather out of Azkaban was always at the fore front of his mind. Until he did so, he wouldn't stop trying.


	9. The Evidential Proof

******AN:_ Hey guys, so I just wanted to apologise for the fact that you lot had to wait two/ three weeks before I uploaded this chapter but I gotta tell you that College sure is mad stressful, got piled on with tons of tests and projects, and between that and trying to write another chapter, it hasn't been easy. I promise that I would try not to make you guys wait this long next time, hopefully *fingers crossed lol*._**

_******Anyway, sorry to bore you guys with the speech, enjoy the story and please leave me reviews on what you think. Also thanks a bunch to everyone that has taken their time to read, review and follow this story, I hope it hasn't been too much of a disappointment lol.**_

**DISCLAIMER: AGAIN HARRY POTTER DOES NOT BELONG TO ME *UNFORTUNATELY***

**_CHAPTER NINE_**

_THE EVIDENTIAL PROOF_

A day before Christmas, Harry was reading a book on Ancient Runes and was jotting down the ones that he could practise, when he heard people outside of the house on the streets singing Christmas carols, which he thought was odd. So he ran to his room to check for the date on the calendar that he had bought recently after he had realised that he had missed his own birthday without even knowing. After checking the calendar, he realised that it was in fact Christmas eve and having never celebrated a normal one before, boy was he excited, because at the Dursleys' they always locked him up in his cupboard when they had a Christmas party and never gave him food to eat and so he had to find scraps at the bottom of the pot later in the middle of the night when they finally went off to bed.

"Well, not this time" he thought defiantly to himself.

He was going to have a traditional Christmas dinner all by himself, he had hoped Sirius would be here by now but he still hadn't been able to find a loophole in the bloody Ministry of Magic law, but right now he wasn't going to think about that because this is his first proper Christmas and he was going to do it right.

So that night, using his metamorphmagi abilities, he disguised himself as a muggle and went shopping for items he would require to make his dinner, he even went a little overboard by buying a few Christmas decorations even though he would be eating alone. However on his way back home, he spotted an old man with rather white long beard tucked into the belt of his robes, and with a jolt, Harry recognised him as the same old man he had had a glimpse of from the Dursleys' kitchen window, the day he had left them for good.

"Without a doubt, this man is from the magical world", he thought to himself. So he hid behind a small bush not far away from the house and watched as the old man circulated the house, as if trying to decipher if someone is in there or not. After a few more minutes of doing this, the man turned on the spot and discreetly disapparated with a soft pop. Just when Harry was going to come out of the bush and make his way into the house, the old man apparated back but this time, with another man. Harry could just make out what they were saying, barely.

"Dumbledore, I don't think this house has been inhabited, I mean look at it, it is in ruins" the man that had come along with Dumbledore said.

"I know Kingsley, however, there are spells that could make it look uninhabited" Dumbledore replied, still staring at the house, trying to decide if Harry could be in there but like before he wasn't having any luck.

"I know that, but a child can't perform that level of magic without a lot of practise, especially Harry that hasn't even been exposed to the magical world" the man named Kingsley said.

"Well I'm going to check inside, just in case, which is why I brought you with me, as an Auror you might find anything suspicious that I might miss" Dumbledore replied, now moving towards the door, however just as he touched the door, he was thrown back with such mighty force that he hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of him.

The man called Kingsley ran over to him and helped him up, "Are you alright?" he asked the old man as he helped him get up.

"Yes, yes I'm fine" the old man replied.

"What happened?"

"It seems that I might have misjudged the Ministry of Magic, they put in a lot of protection spells on this house, enough that it would take days, maybe weeks to bring down. There are some really powerful spells placed on this house, which I didn't know they had even placed on and I was there when they did the spells" the old man replied, sounding rather surprised.

"Maybe they came back and put some more on, since it holds historical importance to our world" Kingsley said, sounding quite impressed with the Ministry of Magic.

"At least, we now know that Harry is definitely not here but where could he be?" Dumbledore thought aloud.

Thinking the question was directed at him, Kingsley said "Don't worry Dumbledore we would find him, I checked with every shop owner in Diagon Alley, but no one had seen Harry Potter since the day he had gone missing. But I have to ask, when you do find Harry what are you going to do with him?"

"I am going to send back to his aunt and her family, of course, I can't have him knowing about our world until his letter from Hogwarts gets him, otherwise, my plan is ruined."

"But Dumbledore, those people are the worst kind of muggles and after I used Occlumency on them, I saw how they had mistreated Harry since the day he had been placed under their care. Why would you want to put him back there?" Kingsley asked, really confused, because he just couldn't understand why Dumbledore would want the child to return to those kinds of people. It explains why the child had run away in the first place, those muggles were just simply dreadful.

"It is all part of my plan and all for the greater good" Dumbledore replied simply and calmly but in a voice that hinted that he shouldn't ask any more questions on the topic.

Harry still hidden behind the bushed watched as the men disapparated before coming out from the bushes and running quickly into the house, and effectively bolting on every lock on the door. His excitement for Christmas briefly forgotten, he thought back to what he had just heard.

"So, that's the famous Dumbledore?" he thought as he made his way into the kitchen to put away the groceries. His calculations had been right in guessing that Dumbledore would be searching for him, he had if always known that they found him, they would forcefully return him to the Dursleys but hearing the man that had put him there in the first place, say it aloud despite knowing how Harry had been mistreated in the hands of his aunt and her family, just made Harry see red.

Boy, did he hate that man's gut more than ever now, but there is no way in hell he would let them return him to the Dursleys or in any case be found. However there was one good thing that Harry got from the whole thing and that is watching Dumbledore get thrown on his behind when he tried to come in to the house.

"At least my spells worked" the boy thought smugly to himself, cheering up at the memory of watching Dumbledore get thrown out, before proceeding to decorate the house.

* * *

A month had gone by since Dumbledore had tried to pry his way into the house, and Harry had long forgotten about the incident. He was more engrossed with his studies and finding a way to get his godfather out of Azkaban, in fact he was getting obsessed with finding a way to get Sirius out that it was becoming unhealthy but he had made a personal promise to free his godfather, he just didn't like the idea that the innocent man was rotting away in prison.

During his study time, Harry was just going practicing a few complex transfiguration spells when an idea suddenly popped into his head. He dropped everything he was doing and ran upstairs to his room almost falling down at some point in his haste to reach his bedroom. As soon as he got there, he opened his family's safe and retrieved his parents' will and listened to them talking through a projection until he got to the part he wanted to hear. As soon as he heard it, he rolled up the parchment and returned it back into the safe before going back downstairs to fetch his wand and a little vial. Placing the wand at his temple, he drew out the memory of him listening to his parents' will and placed the memory in the vial before corking it up. He fetched a piece of parchment and quickly wrote a letter before sealing it up with his family seal to show the importance of the letter, as soon as he was done, he disapparated on the spot. As soon as he apparated into Diagon Alley, he ran to a dark corner and disguised himself, using his metamorphmagus powers, as a middle aged man with dark brown and brown eyes and headed straight for the Owl Post Office. Paying for the services of a small tawny owl, he attached his letter and vial to its leg and sent it off, and with that done, he headed to Eeylops Owl Emporium to buy his own owl, because he figured with the letter he had just sent away, he is bound to get a reply and might need to send another letter, however he couldn't keep wasting his time by coming to the Owl Post Office every time he needed to send one.

Inside was relatively small and dark, but filled with owls of different colours and size in cages, watching all of the passerby outside the shop. Harry was just looking around trying to decide on an owl of his choice when he saw it at the corner of the shop, a snowy white owl and he just knew he had to have him, he had felt some sort of connection to it, like it was meant to belong to him. Within minutes, Harry had purchased the owl, and after leaving the shop, he decided it was time to go home, and apparated right in front of the shop.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Ministry of Magic, a letter addressed to the head of Magical Law Enforcement had just been delivered to Madam Amelia Bones by a small tawny owl, who was quite surprised to receive such a letter as it had the seal of a pure blood family, she could tell by the family crest outlined in the seal. Opening the letter, a small package that had been magically shrunk to fit in the envelop fell out and reverted back to its original size. Deciding to check what it is in the package after reading the letter, she proceeded to unfold the folded parchment, and this is what it said:

_To whom this may concern:_

_It has recently come to my attention that an innocent man has been rotting away in Azkaban for away 9 years for a crime that he did not commit. Who is this man, you ask, this innocent man that I write about, goes by the name Sirius Orion Black, ex-Auror for the Ministry of Magic. I say this because it has come to my attention that this said man who supposedly killed 12 muggles and his friend Peter Pettigrew in broad daylight and also as the Secret Keeper of James and Lily Potter, betrayed their whereabouts to Lord Voldemort, is in fact innocent. It also came to my attention that after he was caught, he wasn't given a trial and was merely assumed guilty and locked away in Azkaban, this isn't how justice is done, no one is found guilty until proven otherwise, but I have to ask, where is the prove that this man is guilty of the crimes charged against him? _

_Attached to this letter is a vial containing a piece of my memory after reading my parents' will, which will prove this man's innocence and will serve as a missing piece to a puzzle which I am about to reveal to you._

_After viewing the memory, I implore you to think the things that I am about to ask over. When Sirius Black was said to have murdered 12 muggles and Peter Pettigrew, how come the bodies of the 12 muggles were discovered but not that of Peter Pettigrew except a thumb, and we all know that an Avada Kedavra curse only kills its victims, but doesn't obliterate them. Couldn't this have been a ploy? _

_I also want you to know that the memory I sent to you is totally pure and hasn't been tampered with which I am sure you would be able to tell, and we all know that no amount of magic can create a memory except to tamper with it, so of course I did not create the said memory, however to prove it further, the use of Veritaserum is advised. I am sure that you are wondering who sent you this letter, I am Lord Harry James Potter, son of the late James and Lily Potter. _

_I implore you to please check into this matter as we can't let an innocent man keep suffering for crimes that he did not commit. Also before I bid you adieu for now, I beseech you to keep my identity a secret, until I say otherwise. By the way, if you need to send me a letter, just put my name on the envelope, the owl would be able to locate me._

_Sincerely,_

_Lord Harry James Potter of the Noble and most Ancient House of Potter._

To say that Madam Bones was shocked was an understatement, she couldn't believe what she had just read. If the content of these letter were true, then an innocent man had been sent to prison for a crime he did not commit. But how can it be true, a lot of people witnessed Sirius Black kill those people and Peter Pettigrew. Maybe this was the work of death eaters trying to free a fellow death eater, but what if it wasn't.

She grabbed the letter again and thoroughly read through it, just to make sure, but the letter seemed too genuine to have been made up, and it had been signed Lord Harry James Potter. "The boy was merely a child, surely he can't be a Lord yet" she thought to herself as she hastily grabbed the record book that contained the names of the Lords of the pureblood families, scanning through it, she found his name there written in bold letters "**Lord Harry James Potter of the Noble and most Ancient House of Potter**".

"Oh this isn't good" she thought, panicked. If the contents of this letter is true and action to release Sirius isn't put into operation, the boy could very well take this issue with the Wizengamot and this could not only implement the Ministry but also her department especially her, being the head of the department, for the Potters are one of the most powerful and influential family in the Wizard world and they hold the most seats in the Wizengamot.

Not wanting to risk losing her job, she decided that it couldn't hurt to open up the case once again, and besides the boy had made some good points that warranted mulling over in the letter. So with her mind firmly made up, she grabbed the package that had accompanied the letter and on opening it, just as the letter had said, there was a vial containing the wisp-like memory.

Her heart racing in anticipation and apprehension at what she might discover, she grabbed a pensieve and placed it on her desk, tipping the vial contents into it, she watched as Harry listened to the projection of his parents from the will.

"_This will was written when we found out that Peter Pettigrew, one of the marauders and our secret keeper had leaked our whereabouts to Voldemort and we know he's going to be coming for us soon..._"

She gasped as she came out of the memory still shocked to the core at what she had just seen and heard. "The boy had been telling truth about Sirius' innocence, oh the poor man, but we still need to prove his innocence about killing the muggles and Peter Pettigrew, which might be a lot harder to prove although like the boy had suggested, the use of Veritaserum would do trick" she thought aloud to herself. Getting into action, she contacted the necessary people needed to help put things into motion to get Sirius Black out of Azkaban, and by the end of the day, a trial had been set for the next week to prove his innocence.

The day after Harry had sent the letter, he was in the sitting room reading up on the art of Animagi when he heard a tiny knock on the window and as he ran to open the window he found a little owl with an envelope attached to its tiny leg. He pulled the string used to tie the envelope to the owl's leg and freed the owl, before shutting the window, as he turned the envelope in his hand, he noticed that it had an official crest of some sort on it. Having a vague idea of where the letter was sent from, he quickly ripped it open and here is what it said:

_Dear Lord Harry Potter, _

_It came as unexpected surprise to receive your letter but after reading through it, several times I might add, I have to admit that you pointed out some really important and regrettable faults caused by the Ministry which resulted in the imprisonment of Sirius Black. However, using the piece of memory that you had included with the letter, it gives me great pleasure to say that it is sure to help in the acquittal of Sirius Black and having contacted the right people necessary to set things into motion for this to happen, a trial had been set for next Thursday at the Wizengamot. All you need to do is floo in to the Ministry or if you like, you could floo directly to my office on the day of the trial, because I guessing you would want to be present at the trial and considering the fact that you are likely not to be familiar with the Ministry, I could help take you to watch the trial. _

_Sincerely,_

_Head of Magical Law Enforcement,_

_Madam Amelia Bones_

Upon reading the letter, Harry wasted no time in sending a reply back, informing Madam Bones that he would be delighted to floo directly to her office on the day of the trial and also made sure to thank her in the process for all of her effort in trying to help free his Godfather.

"Things sure are starting to look up" the boy excitedly thought aloud to himself.


End file.
